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uNrrEn sTATEs PATENT onirica.

SAMUEL B. GUERNSEY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR T0 WILLOUGHBY H.

REED AND GEO. W. ZIEGLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLASP FOR SKIRT-HOOPS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 24,777, dated July 12, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL B. GUERNSEY, of Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ladies Skeleton Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXactdescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

The principal object of my invention is to provide for the connection of the hoops or skeleton skirts with the straps cords or other means of suspending them, in a more secure manner than by sewing, and to this end my invention consists in effecting such connection by means of metal clasps formed each of a plate having two parallel apertures through which the suspending strap, or equivalent, passes, and bent so as to embrace the hoop, and clasp the suspending strap or equivalent against the hoop.

My invention further consistsin the einployment of the metal clasps by which the hoops are connected with their straps cords or other means of suspension, as a means of securing together the ends of the hoops.

Figure l, of the drawing represents an outside view of the skeleton skirt having its hoops and suspending straps connected by metal clasps. Fig. 2, exhibits the'form of the pieces of metal of which the clasps are formed. Fig. 3, exhibits the piece bent to the condition for application to use. Fig. l, is an inside view of one of the connections of the hoops and straps. Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical section corresponding with Fig. 4. Fig. 6, is a horizontal section of one of the joints of the hoops.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

A, is the waist band of the skirt.

B, B, are the hoops, C, C, the suspending straps of tape or other materia-l and D, D, the metal clasps connecting the hoops and straps and uniting the extremities of the hoops.

The clasps D, D, are made each of a quad rangular piece of metal plate (see Fig. l) of a depth vertically about equal to twice the width of the hoop and of a width hori- Zontally somewhat greater than the width of the suspending straps or their equivalents. These pieces of plate have each two horizontal slots a, a, cut or punched in them of a length equal to or not less than the width of the suspending tapes or their equivalents and at a distance apart about equal to the width of the hoops. The said` pieces of metal plate before being applied to use as clasps should be bent by suitable means in the lines of the contiguous edges of the two slots as indicated by t-he two dotted lines b, 5, in Fig. 2, to form lips c, c, one at the top and the other at the bottom, standing at right angles or thereabout with the central portion as shown in Fig. 3. The clasps in this condition have the suspending straps C, C, passed through the slots c, a, and the hoops laid between the lips c, 0, the tapes being arranged between the hoops and the central portions of the clasps; and the lips c, c, are then folded over and clamped down by suitable means to the condition represented in Figs. 4t and 5, and thus caused to secure the straps firmly tothe hoops at their points of intersection or meeting. To use the same clasps for connecting the extremities of the hoops it is only necessary to arrange the joints of the hoops so that one of the straps will cross each of them and to lap the extremities of the hoop together and place them along with the strap within the clasp and close the lips tightly upon the hoop, as'shown in Fig. 6.

My invention is not limited to the use of the particular form of clasp herein represented, butI I have in contemplation several modifications, and have represented one form merely as an example serving for illustration.

And what I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,

l. Connecting the hoops with the straps or equivalents thereof for connecting and suspending them by means of plates bent to embrace the hoops and formed with two slots or apertures through which the straps or equivalents pass thus clasping the straps or equivalents to the hoops, substantially as described.

2. And I also claim the employement of the metal clasps constructed as above described in combination with and as a means of connecting the ends of the hoops, substantially as described.

SAML. B. GUERNSEY.

Witnesses:

HENRY T. BROWN, WM. TUsoH. 

